Riley's Christmas Eve Surprise
by shebe67
Summary: Lucas wants to give Riley a huge surprise on Christmas Eve.


**Riley's Christmas Eve Surprise**

 _It was the first Christmas since Riley and Lucas had graduated from UT Austin and were living in a small apartment off campus. Lucas had just finished his first semester of Vet school and Riley was working as an Editorial Assistant at a small publishing company. Lucas was working part time for a local animal clinic. The couple had managed to come up with a couple of their own Christmas eve traditions over the last few years and Lucas was waiting for Riley to get home from some last-minute shopping his mother had whisked her away for. This was the first time in 4 years they wouldn't be traveling to New York City for Christmas and he wanted to make It a memorable one for Riley. In this story they are about 24 and 25._

Lucas looked around the room and decided everything was perfect, the only thing missing was Riley. He looked at the clock on the living room wall, she'd be home anytime and their Christmas Eve celebration would start, he couldn't wait!

He walked over to the tree and placed the beautifully wrapped package under it. He and Riley had begun a new tradition a few years ago of gifting each other with ornaments on Christmas Eve and this was one he couldn't wait for her to see. They also decided to have Chinese delivered. He had ordered all of their favorites and was waiting for the delivery. There was freshly popped popcorn and hot chocolate in a thermos all ready to go for whatever movie they decided to watch. If Riley got her way it would be **_It's a Wonderful Life._**

He heard the lock on the door and knew it was her. He rushed to the door to greet her and help her with the many bags he knew she would be carrying.

"Hey, Riley," he said as leaned in to give her a quick kiss. "Did you and my Momma have a good time shopping?"

"Hi," she answered as she handed him a couple of the bags she had in her hands. "I had a great time, I think your mom out shopped me though."

Just as Lucas set the bags on the floor there was a knock at the door. It was the delivery guy form the Chinese restaurant with their food. Lucas pulled some money out of his wallet and handed to the guy and told him to keep the change. He took the bag of food to the table and set it down, Riley was right behind him, smelling the food.

"Do you want to go ahead and eat?" Lucas asked her.

All Riley could do was nod her head yes, "haven't eaten since breakfast, starving!"

They took their places at the small table and started spooning food from various containers onto their plates. As they ate, Riley couldn't help but notice how much cleaner the apartment looked.

"Lucas, did you clean the apartment?" she asked after taking a sip of water.

"Yea, I know how crazy things have been. Just thought I'd do my share." He smiled at her.

"You wrapped presents, too?" she just noticed all of the presents under the tree.

"I wrapped all I could find. I just want us to be able to enjoy our movie tonight."

"That was very sweet of you. That just leaves the things I got today and it's not much, thank you, Lucas." She couldn't believe that he'd done all this.

They finished eating in silence and once they were done with their food, they cleaned up the leftovers and dirty dishes. Lucas loved the fact that the two of them could share a simple task and never have to say a word to each other. They moved around the small kitchen like they had been doing it for years.

After everything was cleaned up, they finished wrapping the few presents that Riley had just bought. Riley excused herself to the bedroom, she came back a minute or so later with a package wrapped in red sparkly paper, with a blue bow and placed it under the tree.

Lucas watched her place it in the very front underneath the edge of the tree. One of his favorite things about Christmas was trying to guess what was in each gift that had his name on it.

"Is that one for me?" He asked with a knowing smile on his face.

Riley smiled at him, "Yes and if you can just be patient for a few more hours, you'll know what it is."

"That must be my Christmas eve present, then." He picks up the small package gently shaking it near his ear, "I think it's a new Christmas ornament."

She takes the gift from his hands and puts it back under the tree, "Be careful with this, it's fragile."

"Well, Riles, I guess all that's left is to figure out what movie we're going to watch. I have the hot chocolate and popcorn all ready to go, what will it be?" he asked holding up four different Christmas movies for her to choose from.

"Hmm…I already watched this one while I was talking to Maya on the phone the other day. I watched this one with Pappy Joe a month ago and when Zay was here the other night waiting for you to get off work, we watched this one. So that only leaves **_It's a Wonderful Life_** ," she explained.

All Lucas could do was laugh, "I knew it!"

"What? You know I always wait to watch this one with you." It had been that way for four years and neither one of them really ever wanted that to change.

"I'll get the movie set up, if you'll go get the hot chocolate and popcorn," he suggested.

"Fine with me." She said and went into the kitchen and poured two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, topped with mini marshmallows and grabbed the bowl of popcorn pouring in a few M&M's.

Lucas was already sitting on the couch, she handed him a mug and set the popcorn on the table and took her spot next to him. He pushed play on the remote and for the next couple of hours she got lost in one of her favorite movies.

As the sounds of George Bailey and all of his loved ones singing **_Auld Lang Syne_** faded into the end credits of the movie, Riley felt so content snuggled up to Lucas's side that she didn't want to move.

Lucas was the first one to move, "I'll take care of these mugs and popcorn bowl if you put the movie away, then we can open our Christmas eve gifts." Lucas was suddenly nervous and excited all at once.

Riley gave a little squeal of excitement and did as he suggested.

As he was heading to the kitchen he could hear her humming, "Someone is excited to open a present."

"Yes, I am. You always pick the best ornaments for me. All of them represent one of our many moments and I can't wait to see what moment we commemorate this year," she told him.

While she waited for him to return from the kitchen she looked at the ornaments on their tree. So many memories, the Eiffel Tower and Subway car, the skis that represented the ski lodge. He'd even managed to find a purple jelly bean ornament. Of course, there were also the ornaments she had given him over the years, a cowboy hat, an apple to represent New York City and the leaf ornament she had hand made.

Lucas finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher and returned to see her looking at the Christmas tree. He knew she was thinking about all of their ornaments and some of the memories behind them. He hoped this years would be her favorite one yet.

She turned to him when she heard his footsteps behind her, she reached down and picked up the gift that he had inspected earlier and took her seat on the couch.

Lucas bent and picked up a box similar in size. It was wrapped in purple paper with a silver bow on it. "Who gets to go first this year?"

"You do, I opened the jelly bean ornament first last year," she said.

"Okay," he said as he started tearing at the paper revealing a white box. He opened the box and pulled out something wrapped in tissue paper. He carefully unwrapped it and smiled when he saw what it was. He held it up, examining it.

"This is Sophia, isn't it?" he asked while turning the ornament in his hand. It was a wooden hand carved horse.

"Yea, it's supposed to be Sophia. Do you like it? It was either the horse or a book and I thought the horse was cuter than a book," Riley explained.

"It's beautiful! It's the first time I ever told anyone about wanting to be a veterinarian. This means a lot to me, Riley. Thank you!" he leaned in a gave her a kiss before getting up to hang the ornament on the tree.

As he sat back down on the couch, he looked at Riley who was bubbling with excitement, this was it, he hoped she liked it.

Riley examined the purple paper on all sides, "This is too pretty to open, Lucas."

"Please open the present, I promise you'll like it," Lucas said.

Riley found the perfect spot to rip the paper revealing a green box. Inside the box was more tissue paper like before. She carefully tore away the layers of tissue to see a round black ornament attached to a gold ribbon. She turned it around, noticing the beautiful script on the ornament. She read the words and then looked at Lucas who was on his knees in front of her.

 ** _WILL YOU_**

 ** _MARRY ME?_**

 _Riley & Lucas_

 _2025_

"Lucas what's happening?" Riley asked, clearly surprised.

"Riley Matthews, I love you more than I ever thought it possible to love another person and I want you to be my wife, will you marry me?

"Lucas is this for real? You want to marry me? For real?" Riley asked,

"Riley look at the ornament." Lucas told her.

She held up the ornament and looked at it again. Something sparkling caught her eye this time. She looked to see what the sparkle was and found a beautiful diamond engagement ring tied to the ribbon of the ornament.

"Lucas…," Riley muttered.

He took the ring from Riley's hand and asked one more time, "Riley, will you marry me?"

Through the tears, she finally answered him, "Yes, Lucas, I will marry you!"

Lucas put the ring on her finger, rose to his feet and took her in his arms. He let his own tears flow as he hugged her, "Riley, you've just made me the happiest guy in the world, I love you so much."

Riley finally found her words, "Lucas, I love you, too! I'm so happy, I want to tell everyone!"

He let her go and she turned to put her ornament on the tree. As she turned back towards him he took her face in his hands and kissed her, he never wanted to let her go.

Once they broke apart he asked her, "So, I take it I surprised you?"

"You sure did, I think this is the best Christmas eve surprise ever."


End file.
